Bushfire tragedy rewrites rules for architects

Survivors from previous bushfires say maintaining community ties is essential and victims must be allowed to choose for themselves whether to rebuild or move elsewhere.

But at the same time, architects are starting to wonder whether any building could be safe in the sort of fires seen over the weekend.

Reconstruction after the Canberra bushfires in 2003 was long and difficult. Many people found themselves underinsured and less than half of the families who lost everything ended up rebuilding.

Richard Arthur, a spokesman for the Phoenix Association, which represents victims of the Canberra fires, says it's crucial that people affected by fires are given genuine choices.

"It's very important that people recovering from the process or from the trauma that they've experienced feel that they have their destiny in their own hands," he said.

"The experience has totally disoriented them and they need to feel they are able to control their lives."

Staying away

Dr David Nichols from the University of Melbourne's faculty of architecture building and planning says there's a real chance that some communities may never be rebuilt.

"It has happened in the past," Dr Nichols said.

"There have been places that have been wiped out by bushfire but are now just a little clearing in the bush that just don't exist any more.

"People have made that decision in the past. And in one sense you can see it would be understandable, particularly if it's associated with trauma.

"I think these are things that bring communities together and people might well decide that they, and understandably and justifiably, decide they want to go ahead and re-establish the place they lived in."

The decision of whether to rebuild will have to be made in a new context.

The fires over the weekend were of an intensity not seen before in Australia, and climatologists say climate change will make these sorts of extreme events more common.

Not enough?

Architect Lindsay Johnston has built a number of houses to withstand bushfires.

His current house has a safe room built for that purpose, but even that may not be enough.

"I've been asked, having seen what's happened over the last weekend, if I would be confident about going into that safe haven and surviving," Mr Johnston said.

"Having seen what's happened, I'm really not sure I would be confident."

Mr Johnston says many communities are at risk and the process of urban sprawl, which is pushing housing developments further and further into bushland, is exacerbating the problem.

"One has to look at many suburbs of our cities that are in very risky situations," he said.

"When you see a situation like this, these towns have been there since white settlement almost and have survived, wooden buildings and old buildings.

"Here we have an extreme weather event which has been so destructive that it really rewrites the rules."

Mr Johnston says the houses at greatest risk are those which are raised off the ground, have tiled roofs and have flammable external surfaces.

"Probably the most significant weakness is the windows and the glazed doors, because the intense heat, flying debris with strong winds, breaks windows and glass and the fire enters the house and the house ignites," he said.

Reviewing regulations

Victorian Premier John Brumby says building codes will need to be revised.

"There will need to be higher fire standards that are built into building codes," Mr Brumby said.

"There may need to be things that we look at like bunkers, like they have in the United States.

"All of these things I think have to be considered and the experts and the families affected will have their say at the royal commission, but all of this has got to be on the table as we come to grips with much more extreme climatic conditions."

For Dr Nichols, the devastation in Victoria presents a sombre opportunity.

"I think we tend to find throughout history, we look back at when these conflagrations come through, then people will often just scramble to recreate the same thing again in the aftermath of a fire," he said.

"But perhaps something valuable can come out of this in the planning and building sense."

As debate continues about how to weigh up the risks of fire, Mr Arthur believes the most important thing the Government can do is make an early and clear decision on what path it will take.

"The social cost of people being unsupported after going through a life-changing experience like this is something that we need to understand and translate into dollar terms," Mr Arthur said.

"I'd like to think at the end of the day that governments recognise that keeping a community together may well be worth the many millions of dollars it might cost to bring that about."